Tribune Publishing names its editors as publishers, too

CHICAGO (AP) — Tribune Publishing's new chairman pressed ahead Wednesday with his rapid reshuffling of leadership ranks at the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and its other major U.S. newspapers, combining the roles of editors and publishers and declaring an ambition to build "the largest global audience on all mediums."

The reorganization comes about a month after Chicago investor and technology entrepreneur Michael W. Ferro Jr. took over as non-executive chairman upon delivering a $44.4 million cash infusion to Tribune Publishing. Ferro also owned a stake in crosstown rival Chicago Sun-Times. On Wednesday, the Tribune said that Ferro would donate that stake to a charitable trust to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

A spokesman for Sun-Times owner Wrapports said the company had no statement in response to the move. Ferro stepped down from the board of Wrapports when he arrived at Tribune Publishing. He also swiftly replaced the company's CEO and the Chicago Tribune's editor-in-chief.

FILE - In this April 12, 2006, file photo, flags wave near the Chicago Tribune Tower in downtown Chicago. A week after naming a new CEO, Tribune Publishing Co. announced a reorganization, on Wednesday, March 2, 2016, naming each of its newspapers' editors as dual editors-in-chief and publishers. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

Wednesday's announcement about eliminating the separate role of publisher was cast as an effort to put that responsibility into the hands of editors who are familiar with their communities and are able to maintain journalistic integrity while driving the business forward.

The longstanding division of roles is the media world is meant to keep business interests from influencing editorial decisions, but with the shrinking of the traditional media industry in the digital age there is more of a blurring of that line, said Alan Mutter, who runs the Newsosaur blog and teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.

"He's trying to make editors think not just about what great stories they can run or what great pictures they can create but who's the audience they are going after and how you're going to get paid for doing this work," he said of Ferro.

In doing so, Ferro is trying to transplant a business model from the technology world to publishing, he said.

"But here's the problem," Mutter said. "Editors ... have no background in business. ... So, you're asking them to suddenly come up to speed at a perilous time for their respective companies."

The Chicago Tribune's new editor, Bruce Dold, who most recently served as the paper's editorial page editor, said that shift has already been under way for some time.

"The editor at the Tribune before I came in had been involved in business initiatives," Dold said in the Tribune's article on the company's announcement. "I served with a number of publishers here ... and every one of them understood how important our journalism was and how important it was to protect the integrity of that. So that doesn't change at all, whatever the titles are."

Other editors taking on dual publishing roles are Davan Maharaj at the Los Angeles Times, Howard Saltz at the Sun Sentinel in Florida, Jeff Light at The San Diego Union-Tribune, Avido Khahaifa at the Orlando Sentinel, Trif Alatzas at the Baltimore Sun, Andrew Julien at the Hartford Courant, Dave Erdman at The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Marisa Porto at the Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia.

Tribune Publishing will also begin offering print subscribers free unlimited access to digital content by April, and announced the departure of Denise Warren, who headed Tribune Publishing's digital operations.

Warren was a 26-year veteran with The New York Times and had headed its digital operations. Warren had been with the Tribune for less than a year.

The company said its new president of publishing, Tim Ryan, will report to new CEO Justin Dearborn.

The Tribune also acquired LA.com and said that Maharaj, as dual publisher and editor, would oversee the launch of the new content vertical.

No details were released about the charitable trust that was receiving Ferro's stake in the Sun-Times or what that transfer would mean for the future of that newspaper. But owners of other newspapers have handed their holdings off to trusts and nonprofits. Most recently, philanthropist H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest announced in January that he was giving Philadelphia's two largest newspapers and their joint website to a newly created Institute for Journalism in New Media. He donated $20 million to endow the enterprise.

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This article has been corrected to show that Ryan's first name is Tim and the announcement was made Wednesday.